N.Z. Pilot’s Escape From Germany

Northern Advocate, 16 September 1941, Page 6

N.Z. Pilot’s Escape From Germany

(Rec. 11 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 15. The “Evening Standard” gives prominence to a story of the escape from a German prisoner of war camp of a South Canterbury airman, Sgt. Pilot Christopher Falcon Scott, a member of the New Zealand Bomber Squadron. Towards the end of last year Sgt. Pilot Scott was briefed for a raid on the Rhineland city of Mannheim. When over the city his Wellington bomber was disabled by anti-aircraft fire. He announced that he intended to make a crash landing and invited his crew to bail out. The crew stayed. The ground, which looked smooth under the moonlight from 3000 feet, was found to be very bumpy, and the aeroplane broke in halves. Scott was knocked out. While he' was in hospital he heard the German propaganda service announce that his machine had been shot down by a Messerschmitt. To Unoccupied France For eight months Scott awaited a chance to escape. Eventually he was able to make a dash for unoccupied France, where he posed as a Frenchman, in spite of lingual limitations. Eventually he reached Spain and arrived in England exactly a year after his arrival from New Zealand. He reported to his squadron on the evening of his arrival and was taken to the briefing room, where he was intrigued to hear bomber crews being briefed for a raid on Mannheim. He said he had no complaints concerning his treatment in the prison camp. The food was adequate because his physique was slight and his appetite modest.